There's someone sitting at the bar. Drinking. Not a familiar species. It takes him a few seconds but then he turns his head and -

"Karen?"

Oh no.

"...Hello? I'm - sorry - I didn't mean to bother you I'm just - kind of lost right now - "

"You're here! How are you here - are you okay -"

He stands up and takes several steps towards her, not entirely steadily.

She steps back a few steps.

"I'm - fine really," she says, despite looking nothing at all like a person who is fine.

He stops walking when she starts backing up. "Okay. Uh, the place is called Milliways. It's an interdimensional bar. It pauses your dimension of origin when you come in, so you should probably stay in, I've been telling people from hells to stay here until we can do something about them - unless - were you someplace nice -"

- well, no. 

But - it could be a test of some kind - why are people bothering to test her - is this a security issue - is she going to get into trouble for not reporting a security issue - can she even report this from here - it's not like that's going to matter if she ends up in the wrong place -

"I - is this still Wolfram & Hart - "

"Wolfram and Hart? You were at Wolfram and Hart? I have no reason to think they have any power here. Milliways doesn't claim affiliation with -" vague handwave - "anybody."

" - ok. I need to - do the stairs go anywhere?"

"Rooms. We can reserve one at the bar."

" - ok. I need to - is there - I'm sorry, I'm just really - who are you?"

"Right. Okay. We - knew each other. About two years ago, by how I've been counting time, but - it looks like it's been longer for you, and maybe it's been a lot longer. Do you remember anything about - about Sunnydale, or about Arda -"

"...no?"

" - okay. That's fine. The thing that's important is that you're okay. Or at least - 

- I was worried you wouldn't want to exist anymore -

- why don't I call someone down here to watch the door and then we can get you some food and some movies and I can explain everything when you're ready -"

"I just - that sounds great, thank you, but I, uh, I really really need to get back to my desk before someone notices I'm missing - "

"Milliways pauses time in the dimension you left from. It won't start again until we open the door. 

-- back to your desk?"

"Yes, I have - there's paperwork and it's due and I really don't want to be a problem because - I don't know what the new management wants yet and I wanna make sure I don't do anything really stupid, like running into an inter-dimensional bar that opened out of the supply closet and assuming that this is enough of an excuse to just ignore everything."

"Wolfram and Hart is the interdimensional evil law firm. They - sell people to hell dimensions and do ritual human sacrifices and keep serial killers out of trouble and egg on planetary wars and so on."

" - yes. This is why I don't expect being in another dimension to be enough to protect me."

"Why do you work there?"

" - well what do you expect me to do, quit?"

"- I am mostly just confused about how this happened in the first place.

I think I may actually be confused about several other things. Do you remember anything that happened in 1996?"

"...We re-elected Clinton? The first pokemon games came out?"

"How long has it been since then for you?"

"Sevenish years...?"

"And what happened during those seven years?"